Yesterday I realized, quite a few years after I should have, that I have never identified in public where I got the seed of the idea that I developed into the modern economic theory of open-source software – that is, how open-source “altruism” could be explained as an emergent result of selfish incentives felt by… Continue reading Open source theory is rooted in evolutionary psychology
Category: General
Truth-telling and wu-wei
A Meditation on the Art of Not Trying is worth a read. If you take nothing else from that article, believe this: wu-wei – effortlessness – is one of the secrets of effective truth-telling. It is an essential skill if you want to be a truly game-changing public advocate.
“Riding the Red Horse” is out
Step right up for my first SF sale, the lead story in Riding The Red Horse. That’s the Amazon link; it’s also available as DRM-free epub direct from Castalia. Also included, my nonfiction analysis of the effect of battlefield lasers on military airpower, a development likely to transform warfare in the coming century as radically… Continue reading “Riding the Red Horse” is out
The Great Beast is here!
The good folks from TekSyndicate showed up yesterday with a pile of parts and did final assembly of the Beast in my dining room. A&D regular John Bell remoted in last night to finish the setup. I’m actually blogging on it now as the last of my work environment transfers over from the old snark.… Continue reading The Great Beast is here!
Why labor unions have lost their moxie
A lot of U.S. economic policy is distorted by the belief that manufacturing jobs are a magic bullet against declining incomes. Manufacturing’s false promise of a decent payday punctures that illusion. One of the dumb, predictable responses to articles like this is “We need a stronger union movement”. Sorry, but no. Declining manufacturing wages aren’t… Continue reading Why labor unions have lost their moxie
Like a football player, head down
OK, this is interesting: From some tabloid, we have the following quote: The unidentified witness wrote that the 18-year-old Brown “has his arms out with attitude,” while “The cop just stood there.” The witness added, “Dang if that kid didn’t start running right at the cop like a football player. Head down.” This is exactly… Continue reading Like a football player, head down
How To Learn Hacking: Version 1.1
I had meant to blog-announce version 1.0 of How To Learn Hacking but got distracted at a crucial moment. So it went out on G+, where I got some useful feedback. This version is revised and very slightly expanded. Enjoy and critique.
SRC FAQ
A&D regular Mike Swanson did such a nice job on this that I want you all to see it.
SRC 0.3 – ready for the adventurous
My low-power, low-overhead version control system, SRC, is no longer just a stake in the ground. It is still a determinedly file-oriented wrapper around RCS (and will stay that way) but every major feature except branching is implemented and it has probably crossed the border into being useful for production. shkafyi The adventurous can and… Continue reading SRC 0.3 – ready for the adventurous
RFC for a better C calendaring library
In the process of working on my Time, Clock, and Calendar Programming In C document, I have learned something sad but important: the standard Unix calendar API is irremediably broken. The document list a lot of consequences of the breakage, but here I want to zero in on what I think is the primary causes.… Continue reading RFC for a better C calendaring library
Underestimate Terry Pratchett? I never have.
Neil Gaiman writes On Terry Pratchett, he is not a jolly old elf at all.. It’s worth reading. I know that what Neil Gaiman says here is true, because I’ve known Terry, a little. Not as well as Neil does; we’re not that close, though he has been known to answer my email. But I… Continue reading Underestimate Terry Pratchett? I never have.
Shellshock, Heartbleed, and the Fallacy of False Prominence
In the wake of the Shellshock bug, I guess I need to repeat in public some things I said at the time of the Heartbleed bug. The first thing to notice here is that these bugs were found – and were findable – because of open-source scrutiny. There’s a “things seen versus things unseen” fallacy… Continue reading Shellshock, Heartbleed, and the Fallacy of False Prominence
A Closed Future for Mathematics?
In a blog post on Computational Knowledge and the Future of Pure Mathematics Stephen Wolfram lays out a vision that is in many ways exciting and challenging. What if all of mathematics could be expressed in a common formal notation, stored in computers so it is searchable and amenable to computer-assisted discovery and proof of… Continue reading A Closed Future for Mathematics?
Review: Infinite Science Fiction One
Infinite Science Fiction One (edited by Dany G. Zuwen and Joanna Jacksonl Infinite Acacia) starts out rather oddly, with Zuwen’s introducton in which, though he says he’s not religious, he connects his love of SF with having read the Bible as a child. The leap from faith narratives to a literature that celebrates rational knowability… Continue reading Review: Infinite Science Fiction One
Mysterious cat is mysterious
Our new cat Zola, it appears, has a mysterious past. The computer that knows about the ID chip embedded under his skin thinks he’s a dog. There’s more to the story. And it makes us think we may have misread Zola’s initial behavior. I’m torn between wishing he could tell us what he’d been through,… Continue reading Mysterious cat is mysterious
My first SF sale!
One of the minor frustrations of my life, up to now, is that though I can sell as much nonfiction as I care to write, fiction sales had eluded me. What made this particularly irksome is that I don’t have only the usual ego reasons for wanting to succeed. I love the science fiction genre… Continue reading My first SF sale!
Tolkien and the Timeless Way of Building
Before you read the rest of this post, go look at these pictures of a Hobbit Pub and a Hobbit House. And recall the lovely Bag End sets from Peter Jackson’s LOTR movies. I have a very powerful reaction to these buildings that, I believe, has nothing to do with having been a Tolkien fan… Continue reading Tolkien and the Timeless Way of Building
Off to Summer Weapons Retreat 2014
Blogging will be light and possibly nonexistent for the next week, as I’m off to Summer Weapons Retreat 2014 for fun and swordplay. Keep out of trouble until I get back…oh, who am I kidding. Go make interesting trouble.
UPS I did it again
I had to buy a new UPS for my desktop machine yesterday after the old one succumbed to battery death, so Cathy and I made a run to the local MicroCenter. UPS designers have been pissing me off since forever with designs that require you to throw away the entire device when the battery craps… Continue reading UPS I did it again
Feline behavioral convergence
The new cat, Zola has been with us for about a month now. My wife and I observe an interesting convergence; as he feels increasingly secure around us, his behavior is coming to resemble Sugar’s more and more, to the point that it sometimes feels like having her back with us. What makes this a… Continue reading Feline behavioral convergence